There is, of course, always the plea politicians and political parties take, that many of these cases are false and ‘politically motivated’.

India aspires to be a great power, but is that even possible under the character of leadership that rises to the highest elected offices in the country? The worsening profile of elected representatives in the country gives little hope that an honest leadership that values the national interest above all else, and that has the motivation, intellect and sagacity to imagine and realise a future in greatness for India, is at hand.

The Association for Democratic Reform, which analyses the mandatory submissions of all candidates in elections, has found that as much as 46 per cent of the elected candidates (252 of 543) to the (current) 18th Lok Sabha have declared criminal cases against them; 31 per cent (170) of the winning candidates have ‘serious’ pending charges, including murder (4), attempted murder (27), and offences against women (2), among others.

The trend indicates that the situation is worsening steadily. In 2009, 31 per cent of elected MPs had pending criminal cases, and 14 per cent were charged with serious crimes; in 2014, this went up to 34 per cent and 21 percent, respectively; in 2019, to 43 per cent and 29 per cent. 27 MPs in the present Lok Sabha have already been convicted in various cases, but continue to sit in Parliament as their cases are under appeal in higher courts.

There is, of course, always the plea politicians and political parties take, that many of these cases are false and ‘politically motivated’. It is useful to recall, here, that during his election campaign in 2014, and again, soon after his government was sworn in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared that all pending cases against MPs would be heard within one year and that “Those who are innocent will remain in Parliament while the guilty will go to jail.” More than a decade later, there is little mention of this commitment.

Worse, 28 of 71 (39 per cent) of the ministers in the Modi 3.0 Cabinet have criminal charges against them, 19 (21 per cent) are charged with ‘serious’ crimes.

It is not, however, the BJP alone that is guilty of these transgressions; all parties give tickets to criminal candidates. While 39 per cent of BJP MPs have criminal cases against them, among the other major parties, 49 per cent of the Congress, 57 per cent of Samajwadi Party, and 45 per cent of the Trinamool Congress MPs, have declared criminal cases against them.

Astonishingly, candidates with a criminal background have a better chance of winning an election as compared to those who haven’t. The chances of winning for a candidate with declared criminal cases in elections to the Lok Sabha 2024 were 15.3 per cent, whereas for a candidate with a clean background, they were 4.4 per cent. There is clearly no stigma attached to crime in the minds of the voter.

While it may be conceded that a significant proportion of the criminal charges against MPs may be ‘politically motivated’, it is abundantly clear that criminal elements find more and more space in the highest echelons of the national political process. These are individuals, many of them sociopathic personalities, who are likely to pursue personal agendas with little concern for consequences to others, or to the national weal and security.

The seizure and retention of power is, for them, the paramount objective, and they will employ all means necessary to secure these ends. In positions of power, moreover, they become enablers for other toxic individuals and groups, manipulating institutions and abusing their power to place compromised and malleable individuals in critical institutions and offices, creating a pathological subculture in governance and society in which deception, intimidation, violence and greed become commonplace.

The harms are not limited to these noxious subcultures but spread catastrophically into wider society. Since no stigma attaches to crime, and there is no shame even in being caught—the only fear is of being disempowered and punished. If these latter outcomes can be evaded, and a man may enrich himself or rise to high office by these means, he is admired and idolised.

Popular culture sees the gangster, the ‘Baahubali’, as an aspiration, a model to be emulated, to be lionised in song and film. The ideas of the rule of law, of the social contract, of democracy, lose currency. Raw power and wealth are the only values. Arrested moral and psychological development taint the nation at large. In an unequal, amoral, unjust world, spaces widen for extremist and authoritarian creeds that offer quick and harsh solutions, to take deep root.

There appears, within the current structure of the Indian system and society, no mechanism to reverse this putrefaction. Political leaderships across parties have failed the nation; the slowness of the courts begins to resemble complicity; and the voter has no compunctions voting criminals to power, again and again.